


Unexpected

by csichick_2



Category: Vikings (TV)
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-24
Updated: 2015-04-24
Packaged: 2018-03-25 12:17:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3810082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/csichick_2/pseuds/csichick_2
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Despite his initial refusal, Ragnar and Lagertha once again invited Athelstan into their bed.  The results are unexpected.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unexpected

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ParallelPenguins](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ParallelPenguins/gifts).



Athelstan took his vows of celibacy seriously. Or at least he did. Ever since the Northmen took him and Ragnar and Lagertha brought him into their home, he’s been questioning everything he believed. He thinks back to the night that the two of them had propositioned him. At the time, he hadn’t believed they were serious, had thought they only wanted to shock him. But now he can’t help but wonder… However, he also knows that he doesn’t have the courage to do anything about it, so for now he waits. He just hopes he hasn’t already waited too long.

*****

When Lagertha first notices that Athelstan keeps looking at her when he thinks she’s not paying attention, she doesn’t think that much of it. From what Ragnar told her of the raid, the Christians kept their men of god isolated, so it’s possibly been years since he’s seen a woman. And Lagertha imagines that she’s quite different than any woman he’s ever seen before. She assumed his looks would stop when the novelty of spending so much time around a powerful woman wore off.

When the looks don’t stop, but rather increase in frequency, she starts to get concerned. The looks themselves don’t bother her, but rather what she fears they mean. The way Athelstan clung so tightly to his Christian vows, she doubts he would ever take any action, but should Ragnar notice… while he may have been willing to bring Athelstan into their bed, he still wouldn’t take kindly to another man taking interest in his wife. However, when Lagertha notices Athelstan looking at Ragnar the same way… Well maybe there’s more to him than meets the eye.

*****

It isn’t until a few days later that Lagertha puts her plan into action. Ragnar is skeptical, but she manages to convince him that Athelstan is just as interested in him as in her, though she has to get a bit creative to do it. Though even convinced of that, Ragnar’s unsure about inviting him into their bed again. He feels that despite his interest, Athelstan is no more likely to accept this time.

Once she finally gets her husband on board, they go to Athelstan together, but slightly less brazenly than before. The priest’s long pause makes Lagertha fear her husband was right and she breathes out a sigh of relief when he quietly says that he feared he had missed his chance.

It’s an awkward tangle of limbs. Ragnar and Lagertha had never taken a third into their bed before and Athelstan had never taken anyone to bed before his vows of celibacy, so this is new to everyone. It’s over too quickly and Lagertha fears that Athelstan will quickly flee, but instead he quietly, awkwardly asks if he can stay. When Athelstan returns to their bed the next night, she knows then that it is the start of something special.

However, during the day they act as though things are uncharged, even in front of Bjorn and Gyda, though it is hardest around the children. For all that Bjorn protests, the children are warming up to having Athelstan in their home, but they are still young and may not understand just why the need for secrecy is so great. If Ragnar and Lagertha had invited one of their own people into their bed, most would not care, but if people knew they were bedding a Christian… Lagertha knows Earl Haraldson doesn’t need another reason to distrust her husband.

But at night… night is a different story. It’s just the three of them and it doesn’t matter what anyone thinks. Three bodies moving together will always be awkward to a degree, but each time it becomes less so. Despite what both men would claim if pressed, it isn’t just a physical connection. It may have started that way, but Lagertha can sense the deepening emotional bond between the three of them. It’s actually part of why she pushes Ragnar about going on the next raid. Part of her is still angry about being left behind the first time, but this time the circumstances are different. They both know that Athelstan will look after Bjorn and Gyda as though they were his own, which Lagertha suspects is the only reason Ragnar didn’t put up more of a fight over her joining the raid. Bjorn’s loud protests over the arrangement ensures the secret of the three of them remains just that, which makes Lagertha grateful the children don’t know. She knows they’re going to be unable to keep it from them, but she and Ragnar have to return from the raid first.

When everything goes to hell after the raid, it’s Athelstan that helps Lagertha hold things together, especially when Ragnar is near death. She’s fairly certain Bjorn is starting to suspect things, but keeping her husband alive is more important than explaining things to her son. By the time she is able to speak with him, Ragnar is Earl of Kattegat, and that was because Bjorn forced her hand with an outburst. Once he realized that both his parents, as opposed to just his mother, were sleeping with Athelstan he took the news surprising well. Gyda was much easier to tell, but also much harder to convince to stay quiet. When Lagertha sees Ragnar speaking quietly to Bjorn – with significant looks in Athelstan’s direction – she suspects her husband is reinforcing the need for secrecy to their son.

While in other circumstances, Lagertha would be elated to be with child, this time she cannot help but worry. While she hopes the child is her husband’s, it could just as easily be Athelstan’s, a fact that terrifies her. Should the child be born with dark hair, it wouldn’t immediately give their secret away given Gyda’s brown hair, but once the child is older… Lagertha prays to the Gods that Ragnar is indeed the father of her child and that if he is not Athelstan has been fully accepted as one of their people by the time it is discovered. Until then, she’ll just enjoy the time she has with both her men.


End file.
